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Elias Decker wants to elevate the stature of the pep band drummer - literally. For his high school graduation project, the 18-year-old senior is building a platform to allow the band's drummer to play alongside the saxes, clarinet and cowbell. The idea for the platform came to Decker when he attended basketball regionals in Juneau in March. Two drum platforms were set up at opposite ends of the bleachers in the Thunder Mountain High School gym so that bands from competing schools could take...
What started out as merely a way to show support for her best friend ended up being a life-changing experience for high school senior Brodie Gardner. Last June, she was asked by Mia Wiederspohn to go with her to the Sealaska Heritage-organized Celebration in Juneau, which led to Gardner becoming more involved in the Tlingit culture and restoration of the Chief Shakes gravesite on Case Avenue. "I went to Celebration with Virginia (Oliver), and I'm not part of her Tlingit class but my best friend...
Zeke Yéeskáa Young always enjoys meeting new people, traveling to new places and learning about different cultures. But he had no idea when moving to Wrangell last year from Port Angeles, Washington, that he'd be helping to sustain a culture. Young's high school senior project is to create five new signs in Tlingit and English to direct residents and visitors to five Native points of interest. "When I came up here last year, I needed a fine arts credit," he said. "I was put into Tlingit for m...
For many years now, Google Maps street view allowed travel planners to tour cities in a realistic, 360-degree-view platform. But not people planning to visit or those living in Wrangell. One teen decided to fix that. Senior Killian Booker photographed all of the borough's streets and popular tourist attractions to upload to Google Maps, allowing people to use the street view option. He chose the undertaking for his graduation project. Booker began taking photos and editing them on Sept. 12 last...
Alaskans will elect a U.S. senator, a member of the U.S. House, a governor and several dozen state legislators on Nov. 8. It’s an important vote, with real consequences for the nation, the state’s future, school funding, the ferry system, civil liberties and social justice. And yet, judging from past turnouts in non-presidential election years, maybe half of Alaska’s registered voters will cast a ballot. Which means the other half stayed home — unconcerned, uninterested and unmoved in how their state and country are run. Really, 50% is a good b...
A century ago on Nov. 7, 1922, Tlingit translator and civil rights advocate Tillie Paul Tamaree helped Charlie Jones, the seventh Chief Shakes, vote in a Wrangell municipal election. Her actions led to a court case that would secure the right to vote for Alaska Natives two years before the federal Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 extended citizenship to Native people across the United States. When she was 12 years old, Tamaree entered the Amanda McFarland Home for Girls in Wrangell to avoid an...
Tribal members from both sides of the U.S.-Canada border — the headwaters and downstream region of the Stikine River — talked about strengthening their relationship when they met at the recent Sharing Our Knowledge conference in Wrangell. One of the common interests bringing the Indigenous people together is their concern for the river — protecting and preserving its salmon runs that have fed tribal members for generations. The discussions during the conference were about “connecting and cementing those relationships,” said Christie Jamieson,...
The members of the Sharing Our Knowledge organizing committee extend our gratitude to all those in Wrangell who helped us in the production of a conference that exceeded our fondest hopes. This was the 11th Sharing Our Knowledge conference since 1993, which we have endeavored since 2007 to hold every two years. In Wrangell, beginning Wednesday, Sept. 7, with the “Warming of the Hands” ceremony of welcome at Chief Shakes House and concluding on Sunday, Sept. 11, with a visit to Anan Creek, roughly 250 people participated as audience or pre...
When Steve Brown, researcher and master carver, looks at totem poles, he sees details: the quality of the formline design, the subtle curves around a jaw, lip or eyelid, the amount and placement of any weathering or decay, the tiny, intricate figures hiding behind a bear’s ear or sitting on its shoulder, and the composition’s place within the continuum of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian art history. Last Thursday, Brown visited Wrangell to present his research on the island’s totem poles as part of the Sharing Our Knowledge conference. His lectu...
Grants totaling $12.4 million for Southeast Alaska projects ranging from a greenhouse in Yakutat to workforce development in forestry-related fields in Hydaburg were announced Sept. 6 by U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the final portion of $25 million in Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy Investment Projects announced this year. Vilsack, in an online news conference with Alaska Native and other regional leaders, said the awards are intended to maximize the area’s sustainability and self-reliance through its n...
Twenty years ago, the Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska asked the Portland Art Museum to return nine objects that were taken from the Naanya.aayí clan in Wrangell almost 100 years ago. Among them are a mudshark hat and shirt, killer whale stranded on a rock robe, killer whale hat, killer whale with a hole wooden fin, killer whale flotilla Chilkat robe, two mudshark shirts, and a headdress the clan says was captured from the Tsimshian during a battle near the mouth of...
Items 1-3: X’átgu S’aaxw/mudshark hat; X’átgu Koodás’/mudshark shirt; Ditlein X’oow/killer whale stranded on a rock robe. According to Portland Art Museum records, former Schools Superintendent Axel Rasmussen obtained the hat and shirt in 1930 from a family member of Chief Shakes VI who died in 1915, and in 1934 he obtained the robe from another family member in Wrangell. According to oral traditional information presented by the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes, these items were removed by Wrangell police after the de...
Jim LaBelle entered the Wrangell Institute in 1955 at the age of 8. Over the next 10 years, he would lose his hair, large portions of his memory, and the ability to speak Inupiaq. He has spent his life trying to understand what happened, and he will tell his story Saturday morning at the Sharing Our Knowledge conference. For LaBelle, storytelling is an essential part of the healing process. As one of the keynote speakers at this week’s Sharing Our Knowledge conference of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian tribes and clans, LaBelle will relate his e...
Beginning Sept. 7, the annual Sharing Our Knowledge conference of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian tribes and clans will be held in Wrangell for the first time. This five-day event will take place at the Nolan Center and will feature a film festival, a panel discussion and a wide variety of research presentations on subjects ranging from Indigenous history to art. Organizers expect an estimated 200 people to arrive in town for the event. Because the anticipated attendance exceeds the capacity of Wrangell’s hotels and bed and breakfast rentals, conf...
From Wednesday through Sunday, the schedule for BearFest is loaded with something for all ages, whether games and art workshops or food and educational symposiums. Since the event is focused on bears, there will be bear safety classes, a look at the new Anan Wildlife Observatory for bear viewing, a history of bears in national parks, and bear conservation among other bear-related topics. BearFest organizer Sylvia Ettefagh said in an interview earlier this month that the mission of the five-day...
For the first time in its almost 30-year history, Sharing Our Knowledge, a regional conference of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian tribes and clans will be held in Wrangell. The conference is scheduled for Sept. 7-11 at the Nolan Center, with activities also planned for Chief Shakes Island and the WCA carving shed. Each day will begin with keynote speeches followed by workshops, said Alice Taff, a conference coordinator. Several field trips are planned and evenings will be devoted to cultural activities for participants. The sessions will be open...
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A U.S. Supreme Court ruling expanding state authority to prosecute some crimes on Native American land is fracturing decades of law built around the hard-fought principle that tribes have the right to govern themselves on their own territory, legal experts say. The June 29 ruling is a marked departure from federal Indian law and veers away from the push to increase tribes’ ability to prosecute all crimes on reservations — regardless of who is involved. It also casts tribes as part of states, rather than the sover...
July 9, 1922 The Fourth of July has come and gone and one of the most successful Independence Day celebrations that Wrangell has ever known has passed into history. Much of the success of a celebration of this kind depends on the weather, and this year the weather was ideal. The street sports in the afternoon were very much the same as in former years. There were, however, two new sport attractions that aroused the most intense interest. The Tlingit war canoe race was a big drawing card, and it is doubtful if the McCormack dock ever had more pe...
Culturally significant objects formerly in collections of the Portland Art Museum arrived in Juneau on June 8 on their way back to Wrangell, whose Tlingit artisans had fashioned them. After years of negotiations following a claim originally filed in 2002 and accepted by the museum in 2019, the objects, including a Killerwhale Hat, have been repatriated to the Naanya.aayí clan in Wrangell, where they had originated. COVID-19 complications delayed the transfer until now, according to a museum...
Work on an outdoor deck at Chief Shakes Hot Springs up the Stikine River has been delayed until next spring, after federal funds the Forest Service expected for the project have yet to arrive. The site, which consists of two hot tubs — one indoor and one outdoor — was supposed to get a facelift this month, favoring a higher river and tide levels for easier access at this time of the year. The project, which had been estimated at $190,000, received $81,200 from the Great American Outdoors Act — or so the Forest Service had been told, Distr...
The chamber of commerce is planning a welcome ceremony for the first ship on Wrangell's official cruise calendar, which also happens to be a brand new vessel making its inaugural sailing to Southeast. The 186-passenger Ocean Victory, chartered by American Queen Voyages, is scheduled to arrive at 8 a.m. Thursday at the City Dock. Chamber Executive Director Brittani Robbins on Monday said the ceremony is planned for 10 a.m. Thursday and will feature Tlingit dancers, a presentation of a key to the...
For as long as the Tlingit people have built canoes, they have carved paddles. Just as there are many different sizes and styles of canoes for various purposes, paddles are created to be just as unique to their users. The tradition of carving paddles continues today throughout Southeast for cultural celebrations, dancing, decorations and even paddling canoes. In Wrangell, a workshop held April 22-24 educated about 15 participants on the type of wood to use, how to carve it and properly finish...
The Roald Amundsen, a first-of-its-kind hybrid cruise ship powered by battery energy and fossil fuel, is scheduled for its first Wrangell stop on May 23 - on its first voyage to Southeast. Norwegian cruise line Hurtigruten had the 528-passenger ship - named for the first man to cross the Antarctic - specially constructed for voyages in polar waters. The 460-foot-long ship was built in Norway and started service in 2019. A spokesperson said Hurtigruten chose Wrangell as a port of call "because it...
March 9, 1922 The following excerpt from a letter of Acting Governor Thiele will interest residents of Wrangell who are being asked to join the Alaska Historical Association. “I heartily concur with you in securing an appropriation from the coming Legislature for the purpose of establishing a branch museum at Wrangell. I remember distinctly while in Wrangell visiting Chief Shakes House, and seeing a number of Tlingit curios there. Their association with the people of Wrangell should at all times remain there, and … I will cooperate with you...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association was told last month it will receive $620,000 in federal funding from the Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy, a $25 million U.S. Forest Service investment to diversify the economy of Southeast communities. The tribe plans to spend $500,000 on a project to carve new totem poles, $60,000 on a cultural symposium and $60,000 toward cultural preservation, such as promoting traditional, healthy foods and adding the Tlingit names to signs around town. WCA plans to hire a master carver and obtain the logs to...